King of the Commandos/plot
Chapter I: A Strange Encounter Copper and Trapper at waiting at a beach while Gimlet reconnoitres a radio-location hut on the coast of Northern France. Cub approaches and whisper for the "commandos". He tells them that the hut is a trap for commandos and Gimlet has been captured. Copper and Trapper are sceptical at first but Cub manages to convince them that he is British and is genuine. As Cub has observed the entire proceedings from their landing to Gimlet's capture at the hut, Copper asks him to lead them there by the safest way. Chapter II: How Cub Peters Went to War The narrative rolls back to explain Cub's back story. He had run away from school to join a boat to Dunkirk to look for his father, Colonel Lionel Peters of the Buffs. He had heard that his father was last seen lying wounded on the beach. So Cub stowed-away on a launch but was bombed when it reached Dunkirk. Cub survived but was unable to get home. Wandering in Northern France, he met one Louis Morelle and they became friends. Soon other boys joined them and they formed a group named "The Grey Fleas of the North" hiding in the Forest of Caen and performing various acts of sabotage. The Fleas took on various codenames styled after animals, hence Cub. Louis Morelle became the Fox. The commandos storm the hut and resuce Gimlet. The party then board their motor canoe. Cub, despite his protestations, is bundled along and brought back to England. Chapter III: Cub Makes His Choice Gimlet has bad news for Cub: the War Office has no news about his father. Cub is given a choice of going back to school, or joining Gimlet's unit as a guide. His local knowledge and membership of the Grey Fleas could come in useful. Of course, Cub chooses the latter. Chapter IV: Under the Greenwood Tree Four days later, Gimlet, Copper and Trapper, with Cub now acting as a guide, sneak back into France in a motor boat. Gimlet has a mission to reconnoitre Chateaudun where Cub says some important allied VIPs, officially declared as dead, are being interned. They have also brought along weapons and supplies for the Grey Fleas. Cub introduces the commandos to the Grey Fleas. They are happy to see Cub again but have bad news: the Fox, their leader, has been caught by Generaloberst Gunther and his adjutant Hauptmann von Roth. Von Roth has been questioning the Fox but without success so he plans to flog him publicly and then execute him at the Place de la Republique in Caen. Gimlet plans a rescue. Chapter V: Gimlet Signs His Name The rescue is carried out smoothly. From a disused shop, the commandos open fire on the German troops assembled for the execution, followed by the Fleas, position at various points around the square who throw smoke grenades into their ranks. Amid the confusion, Cub runs in to free the Fox and the group makes their egress hidden under sacks in a vegetable cart. Before departing, Gimlet paints his trademark, a symbol of a gimlet, to prove that it is the work of British commandos and so spare the French population from blame. Chapter VI: Sabotage de Luxe Sheltering in a farmhouse, the commandos discuss the next step with the Fox and Cub. The coast is being watched and there are German patrols everywhere. But Gimlet intends to push inland to Chateaudun so Cub asks the Fox if there is a goods train going south. The Fox reports that rail traffic is held up. An ammunition train, a goods train and a loose engine are stopped at sidings at Falaise which a troop train is due to pass through. Gimlet plans a grand sabotage. Falaise is on the way to Chateaudun in any case. Going by the plan, Gimlet and hs team proceed to the rail sidings at Falaise by night, together with the Grey Fleas. They first take out the sentry at the signal box. But then things go awry. The German unteroffizier in charge decides to send the ammunition train to another siding in the town. Chapter VII: A Ride to Remember The train begins to move off. There is nothing for it. Gimlet and Copper jump onto the moving train, followed by Cub. They jump from wagon roof to wagon roof and make their way to the engine, shbooting up the opposition. They eject the engine driver and fireman from the take control. However a British intruder aircraft shows up and strafes the train, setting it on fire. Unfazed, Gimlet drives the burning train back to the siding at Falaise. The rest of the plan can now proceed, albeit with an ammunition train on fire. With the help of the Grey Fleas swiching the points by pulling on the cables, the burning train is sent towards the approaching troop train, resulting in a massive collision and explosion. The goods train is started up and sent, unmanned, towards Cherbourg where it would likely collide with something. Gimlet and his team board the loose engine and head for Chateaudun. Chapter VIII: Death Comes Aboard Nearing Alençon, Gimlet gets rid of the engine and Cub leads them to a suitable hiding place: a barge owned by Marcelle Rochet, a friend of his. But Gimlet and co. discover two German soldiers on board. They had arrived earlier to commandeer the barge but had decided to stay and drink some wine which they had found. Gimlet and co. swiftly despatch the two. Marcelle and Cub then bluff their way through another German patrol but they have to get away. So they take the barge towards Le Mans where Marcelle plans to sink the barge. In the town, Marcelle has an uncle there who can hide her. Chapter IX: Down the River At Le Mans, Marcelle hands her horse to a horse dealer named Bertrand Dacosta and make their way to her uncle's shop. They find it locked. A neighbour tells Marcelle that her uncle, Gaston Boulanger has been called up for labour service in Germany and the conscripts have all been told to gather at the Place des Jacobins. Chapter X: The Ironmonger of Le Mans Gimlet sends Marcelle to fetch her uncle from the assembly area. He brings them all into his shop. Gimlet recognises him as a racing mechanic who had worked for someone he had raced against at Le Mans before the war. Looking out the window to the square, Gimlet sees a convoy of lorries. Some are loaded with goods such as brandy, butter and candles. Others are there to ferry the conscripts, There is a petrol lorry with fuel for the convoy and a touring car for the escort. Gimlet formulates an audacious plan to sabotage the whole fleet. Chapter XI: The Road to Chateaudun The team carries out the plan. Gimlet opens the taps of the petrol lorry and spills the fuel into the gutter down the line of lorries. Cub is in charge of smashing open the bungs of the casks of brandy. It goes too well and Cub gets drunk from the fumes and starts talking in English. Gimlet sets the fuel on fire and grabs Cub and pulls him towards the touring car where the others are waiting. With all eyes on the blazing lorries, they get away unhindered. Some motorcycles and a car are pursuing them. Now Gaston has to do his part. Gimlet had asked him to bring along a few sacks of nails from his ironmonger's shop and he starts to spill them on the road--it's something he had done to Gimlet during the motor race years back. It works and the motorcycles are all put out of action. A car, however, breaks through but Copper despatches it with a stream of bullets from his Sten gun. Chapter XII: Gunther Takes a Hand Using Cub's local knowledge, the car is parked in an old hangar at an abandoned airfield near Chateaudun. Gimlet then asks Gaston to take Marcelle and make a roundabout route via Paris to Caen where they will rendezvous and be brought to England. Meanwhile the rest of the team heads for the church of St. Madeleine where Father Edwinus had once sheltered Cub when he was scouting here in the past. The team settle down in an old chapel by the church cemetery. Cub goes off to try to scrounge for some food. At the main square he is accosted by a German captain who asks if he had seen a large touring car with swastika flags (the one Gimlet had stolen). Cub is almost successful in bluffig his way out when a car drives by with Generaloberst Gunther and Hauptmann von Roth! They recognise Cub as a boy from Caen and have him arrested and brought to the chateau for further questioning. Chapter XIII: The Man of God Gimlet and his team meet Father Edwinus. After some cautions preliminaries, they take each other into confidence. Gimlet tells Edwinus his team had been travelling with Cub. Edwinus gives them the news that Cub has been captured and taken to the chateau. Edwinus also briefs them about sentry arrangements and the number of prisoners at the chateau, including an important French officer named General Romortin. The father had learnt all this, he said, from his sources. They spot a white rag waving from the tower of the chateau. It's Cub. He has escaped and is signalling. Gimlet tells Edwinus of his intention to rescue Cub and the other prisoners. Edwinus takes them to a row of deserted cottages he knows about which bordered on the barbed wire of the chateau. Chapter XIV: "Careless Talk Costs Lives" Cub, after his escape, has been hiding in the top most room of the tower. He climbs and hides in the roof beams when he hears two German soldiers approaching in search of him. The German soldiers find an empty room but decide to take a breather. One soldier tells his colleague that he had heard news that Bertrand Dacosta, the horse dealer at Le Mans, had betrayed the group to the German authorities. The Gestapo had in fact spotted Marcelle and Gaston at Orleans and intended to set a trap for them at Paris where they hoped to net the whole group. The Germans leave. Cub spots a signal from Gimlet telling him to watch the cottages near the perimeter. Chapter XV: Gimlet Makes His Plan At the cottages, Gimlet makes his plan which involves Trapper shooting an arrow through a window in the tower into the room where Cub is. He sends Edwinus to fetch a string and the bell ropes from the church bells. Copper is sent to fetch the car from the airfield Chapter XVI: Copper Gets a Shock At the airfield, Copper is shocked to discover that an entire German bomber unit has moved in. The car in the hangar is blocked by a whole fleet of lorries. Unfazed, he steals a lorry, knocking out the opposition. Chapter XVII: Dizzy Work in the Dark Everything is ready. Copper has returned with the lorry. Trapper shoots an an arrow into the room and Cub pulls in the string and the rope and makes it fast. Gimlet climbs up and Cub briefs him about what he had overhead from the two German soldiers. Gimlet tells him not to worry. They would head for Paris after this to extract Marcelle and Gaston. Cub takes Gimlet to the chapel where the internees where being kept. Gimlet addresses the internees, including General Romortin, who all agree to escape with him. The party is taken to the tower and led down the rope to where Trapper and Copper are waiting to receive them. Gimlet orders Cub to go down as the last man. He himself would go out another way as the rope had to be released or else Father Edwinus would be implicated. Chapter XVIII: Gimlet Goes Alone Gimlet makes his way down the chateau to the hall where he encounters Hauptmann von Roth, the Vichy chateau commandant Colonel Frey and Betrand Dacosta. Von Roth had brought Bertrand as a witness to identify Cub and was reprimanding Frey for allowing him to escape. Gimlet doesn't give them much time for recriminations as he shoots all three dead. He then exits by the chateau front door and rejoins his men. Chapter XIX: Paris The entire party piles into the lorry and make for Paris, busting through a road block on the way. After a brief stop at General Romortin's house for him to retrieve some important documents, they head for the Quai d'Orsay. Following Gimlet's instructions, Cub goes to the platform and discreetly attracts the attention of Marcelle and Gaston. He warns them that the Gestapo are folllowing them and tells them to follow him. Cub leads them into a narrow alley where the commandos are waiting and the Gestapo men are ambushed and taken out. Chapter XX: At the Sign of the Cheval Noir The lorry leaves Paris and heads into Northern France and stops at an inn named the "Cheval Noir". The innkeeper is Freddie, in reality, a British intelligence agent and friend of Gimlet's. He disposes of the lorry and summons an aircraft from Britain to pick Gimlet and his party up. A Liberator arrives crewed by Biggles and Ginger and Gimlet and his group is taken back to England. At the airfield Cub gets news that his father has escaped and has made it to neutral Spain. Category:Plot summaries